Rick Hill is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s VP of Marketing and Communications. Prior to the bowl, Rick spent 6 years working for the Spurs, one season with Missions Baseball and two fruitless months trying to sell season tickets for the S.A. Riders.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Help The Bowl Welcome 35,000 Visitors

San Antonio is an extra special place during the holidays thanks to the 120,000+ lights lining the Riverwalk and the top-notch New Year’s Eve fireworks display. This year, the Valero Alamo Bowl is doing its part to help the festive atmosphere by hosting over 35,000 out-of-town guests who will be wearing red and green in support of Texas Tech and Michigan State during Bowl Week. These fans will fill downtown hotels, restaurants and attractions before they head to the Alamodome on Saturday, January 2 to watch a game that should include lots of fireworks given both teams lead their respective conferences in offense.

Thus it’s only fitting that this year’s illustration features a touchdown catch over the Alamodome with fireworks and confetti going off in the background. I’d like to take credit for the idea, but it was the work of our long-time illustrator Tim Jessell who has done the illustration the bowl uses for our game tickets, posters, game programs and fan guides 16 of the 17 years. Please click here to see how his skill and creativity has allowed him to take the same San Antonio icons and “do it different” each year.

Another good idea I can’t take credit for is “Rick’s Picks.” Three years ago one of our interns started this listing to help us better showcase our city. Please click here to look through the different categories and either email me at rickh@alamobowl.com or post comments below.

My tastes run more toward dives so my selections get overruled a lot. Case in point is the time my favorite hamburger place that got kicked off the list when my car got stolen during a staff lunch there. Apparently, that’s not the image we want to convey to tourists even though the hamburgers are damn tasty.

Besides that place was a tough neighborhood far from our very safe downtown where we like to keep the focus since the game and most of our events are along the Riverwalk. Any and all input is appreciated. San Antonio has a well-deserved reputation for being a top ranked visitor destination so let’s get fired up. It’s Bowl Time!

Welcome to town Susan. The official bowl merchandise stands will go up in the Hyatt Regency and Marriott Rivercenter hotels on Thursday and will be open through game time. There will also be stands at the AT&T Fan Zone in Sunset Station starting at 3 p.m. on game day. Hopefully other shopkeepers alogn the river will also add in some merchandise in the days leading up to the game.